South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20 percent of her state after another tribe banished her Tuesday.
This means that it is currently not welcome on seven of the nine reservations located within the state.
The latest ban followed comments he made earlier this year about tribal leaders profiting from drug cartels.
“We don’t have cartels on reservations,” Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Chairman Peter Lengkeek said after Tuesday’s vote.
The latest developments come on the heels of backlash Noem faced for writing about the death of a misbehaving puppy in her latest book.
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Latest to Ban South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem
Currently, Noem is not welcome on seven of nine reservations within the state.
The controversies are likely to effectively end her chances of becoming Donald Trump’s running mate in the November election.
The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe banned Noem on Tuesday, while the Sissteon-Wahpeton Oyate enacted its ban earlier in the week.
On Friday, the Yankton Sioux Tribe’s leadership committee recommended that Noem be banned, but that tribe’s general council must vote on it before Noem can be banned from her land in southeastern South Dakota.
The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux tribes had already taken steps to keep it off their reservations.
Two other tribes have not yet banned it.
Noem reinforced divisions between the tribes and the rest of the state in March when she said publicly that tribal leaders were catering to drug cartels on their reservations while neglecting the needs of children and the poor.
“Cartel members are committing murders on the Pine Ridge Reservation and in Rapid City, and a gang called the Ghost Dancers is affiliated with these cartels,” Noem said in her speech earlier this year. “They have managed to recruit tribal members to join their criminal activity.”
“The large number of illegal immigrants coming into the country has made every state now a border state,” he continued.
“We have some tribal leaders who I think personally benefit from the presence of the cartels here, and that’s why they attack me every day,” Noem said at a forum.
“But I’m going to fight for the people who actually live in those situations, who call me and text me every day and say, ‘Please, dear governor, come help us in Pine Ridge.’ We’re scared.’ ‘
Noem appeared to double down on her position Thursday by addressing the controversy on social media.
South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem (left) and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairwoman Janet Alkire during a ceremony in which tribal leaders presented flags from the Standing Rock and Rosebud Sioux Tribes in January passed at the state Capitol in Pierre.
Charles Abourezk has served as a judge for Native American tribes in the United States and has said he has not found any cartel activity in the cases he has participated in.
“Honestly, I don’t know of any,” Abourezk told NPR. “I have never encountered any accusations of cartel involvement, although the rest of South Dakota sees normal drug use and sales.”
Noem has previously said that she believes many people who live on reservations still support her even though she clearly does not get along with tribal leaders.
Noem addressed the issue in a publish in X Thursday while posting a link to a YouTube channel about a law enforcement video about drugs on reservations.
“Tribal leaders should take action to ban cartels from their lands and accept my offer to help them restore law and order to their communities while protecting their sovereignty,” Noem said. “We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden Administration is not doing its job.”
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation dance during Flag Day celebration
A sign marks the entrance to the Crow Creek Hunkpati Oyate Reservation of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in Crow Creek, South Dakota
The entrance to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Oglala Sioux tribe
Tribes have clashed with Noem in the past, including during the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock and during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they set up coronavirus checkpoints at reservation borders to keep out to unnecessary visitors.
He was temporarily banned from the Oglala Sioux Reservation in 2019 after the protest dispute.
And there is a long history of difficult relations between the state’s Native Americans and the government dating back to 1890, when soldiers shot and killed hundreds of Lakota men, women and children in the Wounded Knee Massacre as part of a campaign to stop a religious protest. practice known as the Ghost Dance.
Political observer Cal Jillson, who works at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said this tribal dispute feels a little different because Noem appears to be “actively stoking it, suggesting she sees a political benefit.”
“I’m sure Governor Noem doesn’t mind focusing on tensions with Native Americans in South Dakota because if we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about her shooting the dog,” Jillson said.
Noem appears to be tired of answering questions about her decision to kill Cricket after the dog attacked a family’s chickens during a stop on the way home from a hunting trip and then tried to bite the governor.
A banner is seen for Sitting Bull’s burial site on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
Noem also came under fire for including an anecdote she has since asked her editor to remove from the book that described “staring” at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a private meeting that experts said was implausible.
After those controversies, he canceled several interviews that were planned as part of the book tour.
With all the questions about ‘There’s No Going Back: The Truth About What’s Wrong in Politics and How We Move America Forward,’ no one is asking anymore about Noem’s decision to appear in an infomercial-style video lavishing praise on a cosmetic dentist team. in Texas who gave him veneers.
Jillson said all of this probably hurts his chances with Trump, who has been auditioning for a long list of potential vice presidential candidates.
‘I think the chaos Trump enjoys is the chaos he creates. Chaos created by someone else simply distracts from yourself,” Jillson said.
Michael Card, a political science professor at the University of South Dakota, said that if it’s not the vice presidential job, it’s unclear what Noem’s political future is because she is barred from running for another term as governor. Noem is in her second term as governor.
He could run for U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds’ seat or try to return to the House of Representatives, Card said.
